By Svenja AFTER a series of bomb outrages, including the killing of 41 people in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on 29 June, the resumption of the war against the Kurds and the expulsion of legal parties from Parliament, one might have thought that no report from Turkey could come as a shock anymore. The events of Friday […]
By KD Tait Jeremy Corbyn is on the ballot for the Labour leadership election. First the plotters tried to bully him into resigning. Then they tried to keep him off the ballot so they could crown a stooge of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Outraged by the back-stabbing of the MPs and the bias of the […]
By KD Tait The attempted coup launched by Labour’s parliamentary rebels has failed to oust Jeremy Corbyn – but it has provoked a renewed membership surge. Figures confirmed by the New Statesman show 200,000 people have joined the party in the last two weeks, taking total membership to 600,000. Labour is now the biggest it […]
A motion of confidence in Jeremy Corbyn's leadership during the PLP coup
By Jeremy Dewar The boycotts of the ridiculous and cruel tests of children as young as five by parents earlier this year, and the public outcry at the threat by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to force all schools to become academies prove that families would support action Teachers have delivered an overwhelming mandate to strike […]
By Richard Brenner The narrow majority in the British referendum for leaving the European Union is a severe setback for the progressive, socialist and labour movements in Britain and across Europe. First and foremost, this is a blow to the political awareness and class consciousness of millions of British workers, especially in the former industrial […]
By KD Tait Britain’s exit from Europe has caused huge turmoil in domestic politics. It could prove equally disruptive for Europe, where the rise of a Europhobic right was well under way before 23 June. As well as the Front National in France, “Exiteers” in Holland, Denmark and a series of states in eastern and […]
By KD Tait THE COUP has stalled. Jeremy Corbyn has resisted a vicious attempt to morally blackmail him into resigning and open the way to a right-wing counter-revolution in the Labour Party – a return to austerity-lite and anti-immigration policies. The Labour rebels will now have to challenge Corbyn and hundreds of thousands of members […]
A motion mobilising support for Jeremy Corbyn's re-election
A handful of disloyal members are using their privileges as MPs to launch a coup against Jeremy Corbyn. This coup demonstrates the plotters’ contempt for democracy and for the wishes of the 250,000 people who elected Jeremy as leader nine months ago. Deputy leader Tom Watson barely waited to get the Glastonbury mud off his […]
A motion opposing the PLP's coup against Jeremy Corbyn
By Lars Keller ON MAY 7, Warsaw witnessed its largest demonstration since the end of Communism. Around 240,000 people answered the call of the “Committee for the Defence of Democracy” (KOD). Liberals, conservatives and left-wingers took part. Participants included the main centre-right opposition party, the Civic Platform (PO), and the neoliberal Modern (Nowoczesna) Party, led […]
London Supporters of Tony Taylor are holding a picket of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers’ surgery on Saturday 2 July between 11am and noon. The constituency office is 163 High Street, Barnet EN5 5SU. We are demanding the release of Tony Taylor, a Republican activist from Derry. Tony was arrested on 10 March […]
The death of Jo Cox shows it’s time for Lexit supporters to reconsider the implications of supporting a vote that will intensify the trend of racist rhetoric and violence The so-called “Left Leave” or “Lexit” campaign claims that the mainstream Leave and Remain campaigns are equally racist and equally responsible for fomenting anti-migrant racism. This […]
The mass anti migrant movement summoned by Vote Leave received its most shocking expression in the neo-Nazi killing of Jo Cox MP. The mass wave of sympathy for Jo and her family needs to generate a militant anti-racist and anti-fascist response Jo Cox, Labour MP for Batley and Spen has been assassinated by a neo-Nazi […]
By KD Tait More than a million people marched in Paris in protest at the government’s attempt to demolish the Code du Travail [Work Law] which regulates labour rights, including the 35 hour working week, collective bargaining and overtime rates. The head of the demonstration arrived at its destination, while those at the rear were […]
By Dave Stockton The murder of 49 people at Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando, Florida is a horrific event which provokes the deepest sympathy both for the survivors and for the grieving families, partners and friends of the dead and injured. Our sympathy and solidarity should also be extended to LGBT communities throughout […]
By Rebecca Anderson The Annual Delegate Conference (ADC) of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) took two important votes on the Labour Party this week. In one, it decided to review its political strategy and consider the possibility of affiliation to the Labour Party with further decisions to be taken next year. In the […]
By Simon Hardy Over the last few months the new Labour leadership has been conducting a series of meetings, rallies and workshops to discuss the idea of the “New Economics”. The need for such an initiative is clear; the post-Blair party is struggling to re-establish a clear identity, and the new leadership are fighting to […]
By Rebecca Anderson For years, it has been the policy of the Public and Commercial Services Union that the threat compulsory redundancies will trigger a national-wide, civil-service wide ballot for industrial action. Today the union’s leadership, dominated by the Socialist Party, asked the Annual Delegate Conference to vote against a motion reaffirming this policy and […]
By Rebecca Anderson The Public and Commercial Services union’s Department of Work and Pensions conference has narrowly voted to accept a pay deal that will mean working worse hours for a pay rise of only one per cent for most members. Sixty per cent of members will receive the smaller pay rise and others will […]
NHS Footprints plan is latest step to privatisation By Dave Stockton The crisis of NHS funding is reaching a turning point. According to John Lister “In many areas the threat of cuts and closures could soon be a reality.” He points out that after conducting a survey of 155 acute trust finance reports this shows that […]
By Dave Stockton Five years after the NATO-led intervention into the revolutionary civil war that ended in the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Western powers are preparing to send ground troops into Libya. Britain, France and Italy may well play some sort of role.Their declared objective is to destroy Islamic State (IS) forces in Libya, […]
By KD Tait French Trade unions have staged two nationwide days of action in response to the Socialist Party government’s use of emergency powers to impose its reforms to the Work Law without a vote in the National Assembly. This reform is the most serious attack since the pension reform carried out by the right […]
Beneath the rubble ordinary Syrians defend the democratic ideals of the revolution as western governments remain complicit in Russian bombing By Marcus Halaby Syrians in the rebel-held “liberated zones” marked the beginning of the US and Russian-brokered “cessation of hostilities” by coming out onto the streets in their tens of thousands, with anti-Assad rallies reported […]
A longer version of this article published for the 68th anniversary of the 1948 Partition of Palestine appears here. This shorter version was edited down for print. By Marcus Halaby What is Zionism? Isn’t it just a code word for Jews? Zionism is the idea that all Jewish people, regardless of their present location, citizenship […]
The recent furore in Labour has renewed debate about the nature of one of the oldest forms of racism By Jeremy Dewar & Dave Stockton Religious bigotry is practically as old as religion itself. And Christian religious bigotry against Jews, unparalleled in the Muslim world of the same period, was a feature of the so-called […]
The 27 year campaign for truth and justice is a lesson in the value of courage and solidarity By Dave Stockton Hillsborough – which saw the death of 95 Liverpool fans on 15 April 1989 – remains one of the worst sporting tragedies. Given that that it took 27 years for the South Yorkshire Police […]
A party member in the Progress council bastion of Lambeth argues that victory is possible – and worth fighting for By Joe Clegg Summer 2015 was a time of great political excitement for me. Born under Maggie the Milk Snatcher, grown up under Tony the Warmonger, for the first time in my life, there was […]
The “Referendum campaign” has been dominated by the public rows between the two wings of the Tory Party. But there are also those on the left advocating exit. This article makes the case for socialist internationalism By Dave Stockton The divisions amongst the Tories are rooted in the different interests of different sections of British capital, […]